Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 1
The Washington State parole Board has been going from prison to prison setting new minimum terms for offenders serving time for murder. In 1989 the average amount of time served on a murder one was 150.1 months. Along came the Sentencing Reform Act (SRA), which is tougher on violent crimes, ...
Paul Wright
As reported in the last issue of the PLN, there were 32 prisoners shipped from Clallam Bay to the Intensive Management Unit (IMU) at Shelton. The mainstream media reported that prison officials had told them there was a "brawl" between one prisoner and four guards lasting 45 minutes. ...
Ed Mead
We are encouraged by the response to the first issue of Prisoner's Legal News. We have created some controversy. Prisoncrats confiscated the mast copy of PLN #1, another comrade and I received newsletter-related infractions, and my cage was kicked in and trashed twice during a four-day period. Such ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 3
Victims To Amend Constitution
A network of crime victim's rights advocates, concerned about difficulties in enforcing laws that were intended to give victims specific legal rights, is mounting a campaign to win ratification of amendments to state constitutions ensuring those rights. Six states have approved amendments to their constitutions providing ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 3
Marion Prison To Be Replaced
It's gonna get worse, fellas. A March 30th report issued by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons says the BOP is going to replace the federal prison at Marion, Illinois, with a new maximum-security penitentiary in Florence, Colorado.
Marion was built in the early `60s to ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 3
Blacks are more likely than whites to be victims of violent crime, and the crimes against black victims are generally more serious that those against whites, according to a new study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).
A review of the Bureau's National Crime Survey for the years 1979 ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 3
One would think that with all of the new prisons constructed over the past 20 years the crime rate would be going down. Not so, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting System. The feds say crime was up 3% in 1989. Crime rates rose 3% in 1988; a mere ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 4
The May 10th issue of the Seattle Times quoted Ruben Cendeno, director of the Division of Offender Programs for the state Department of Corrections (DOC), as telling a Washington Council on Crime and Delinquency sponsored forum that the Washington state corrections system is facing not only more overcrowding, but also ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 4
Women Prisoners Raped, Harassed By Guards
As a result of a law suit filed late last year on behalf of 12 prisoners at the Ohio Reformatory for Women at Marysville, 18 prison employees have resigned or been fired for having "illicit relations" with female prisoners. The complaint charged numerous male ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 4
State Reneges On WSR Treaty
The above headline is taken from an article in the Monroe Monitor of April 11th. "When a state senator gets fed up with broken promises from the state of Washington, you take notice." Said the article. It was Senator Cliff Bailey who was fed up ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 4
Federal environmental officials plan to fine the State of Florida $100,000.00 for pollution violations at the Florida State Prison near Starke.
The violations involve operations at the prison's sewage treatment plant. United States Environmental Protection Agency officials said April 18th the plant has been releasing nitrogen, ammonia and organic matter ...
"In Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn't speak because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. ...
A History Of Rehabilitation Under Washington State Law
By Matt James
[Editor's Note: The revised Code of Washington provides that the parole Board "shall not...release a prisoner, unless in its opinion his rehabilitation has been complete and he is a fit subject for release." (RCW 9.95.100) the board has never ...
By Paul Wright
The INS (Immigration and naturalization Service) in collusion with the DOC holds deportation hearings at the Wash. Corr. Center in Shelton for so-called "criminal deportee's", these are convicted felons who have had their immigration status revoked because of felony convictions. At these "hearings" the accused is allowed ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 8
"Impacts of Washington State's Correctional Institutions on Communities" is the title of a study available at no cost from the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. The study was commissioned b the state legislature in 1988. The main purpose seems to have been to find out what effects prisons have ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 8
Abolish The Death Penalty!!!
Here in Washington state the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (WCADP) is working to do just that. They have a variety of resources available, including a quarterly newsletter. The Coalition is a variety of religious, civil liberties and civic groups opposed to the death ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 8
by Gary Banning
Under Washington state law, each state agency which proposes a change in the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) must notify interested parties of the changes that it is proposing to give the citizens an opportunity to contact their legislators, organize against it, etc.
Under RCW 34.05.230(2) any interested ...
by Ed Mead
We are encouraged by the response to the first issue of Prisoner's Legal News. We have created some controversy. Prisoncrats confiscated the mast copy of PLN #1, another comrade and I received newsletter-related infractions, and my cage was kicked in and trashed twice during a four-day period. ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 9
Prisoner Aids Support Network
The Prisoner AIDS Support Network is already in contact with the inside and outside prisoner AIDS activists in Canada and the U.S. Experience is knowing that fighting homophobia and institutionally induced ignorance through peer education programs inside can make a difference in knowledge of transmission and ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 9
Prison populations are expected to increase by about 68% by 1994, according to a report by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Effects of the "war on drugs" are expected to overwhelm the nations correctional systems during that time. Other findings include:
The states will require an additional $35 ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 9
Newsletter For Prisoners With Aids
The Prisoners with AIDS -- Rights Advocacy Group (PWA-RAG) was founded by prisoners in May of 1988. The PWA-RAG newsletter is published by Jim Magner and Larry Snyder both prisoners at the federal medical center in Springfield, MO.
PWA-RAG offers support and educational materials to ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 9
Jail Populations Up 54% In 5 Years
In a special report "Population Density in Local Jails, 1988," the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) recently announced that between 1983 and 1988, 5.3 million square feet of new housing space and 29,000 guards were added to jails throughout the ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1990
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1990, page 10
Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey recently announced that Joseph Lehman, 46, the Assistant Secretary of Washington State's Department of Corrections, has been selected to head the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Lehman will be overseeing a prison system about three times as large as Washington's which is beset with severe problems of ...
